Steven P

Is there anyone who can do it for you and certify it as clean? Just thinking if you turn up to customs "Yes, I washed it all" is your word against theirs - a bit of paper may or may not help?

It was written along those lines!

I'll have to dig out the link one day but something like this: "I take abc drug to counter the side effects of def drug which I take because of ghi caused by drug jkl for my sore back which is caused by obesity" - something like that. Often doctors don't get chance to solve the root cause and are only reacting to the symptoms - might help if they were allocated more than 10 minute appointments. Yup, fresh air and exercise are perhaps more valuable than we think (though the headlines a few years ago when patients were given free gym passes, if I remember right were on the outrage side of life)

Imagine, a lady President of the US.

About time. Politically though he should have done it weeks ago, without speculation happening, would have thrown Trumps team. 4 years time Trump will be the same age, perhaps he should also consider the same but he won't

I'd suspect that there isn't one single cause that you can pinpoint and say "That it is" but are more likely to be many small things that add up to cause cancers. I'd also suspect that genetics plays a role here (in that for example, some people in a family might have allergies, some might not). Third thing I'd suspect is that combine the 2 together, genetics and your diet / make up / lifestyle might make you a risk of cancer but not someone else living apparently similar lives. Might look up e-numbers too - I had a list once online and their suspected links (website was mostly redundant / duplicated years ago so I took it down) - a lot to do with childhood hyperactivity but cancers and diabetes links appeared regularly (not all e-numbers are bad, some are just a number for food (example E162 is beetroot juice). Peds has a point I think - what we add to crops could have an effect if your body is built that way - and if you can... go for the more organic (example here, broccoli or organic broccoli in Lidl was about 10p different, best chicken to second best chicken again about 15p a kg different, in a big shop we don't notice that). On meat free days we'll go organic chickpeas and so on, difference in price for that meal to a meat meal makes up for going to organic veggies quite often

Anything can be done inside with the above. Not a great crocs fan, I'll rarely wear socks in the house and garden unless garden work needs toe caps - the shed though, always footwear - too many splinters on the floor (wood, metal, glass, tile, screws, nails...) - brush as often as I like they jump back to place as soon as the back is turned. In the street I'll often go to Vibram 5 fingers - almost bare feet but with a sole. Probably freaking some of you out on a Sunday morning, sorry!

Vietnamese are generally Bhuddists - not sure of the variety apart from god bothering. Mostly slaves to 'pay off' their transit fees, yes.

You'll be OK with the weed - mostly Buddhists doing the care taking, wrong religion, but also the 'wrong' colour of 'wrong' coloured skin, weed will be OK. (as an aside, spotted the discards of a 'factory' on my travels today, someone made a tidy profit a few weeks ago)

similar vein, I'd always encourage colleagues in the office (or specially working from home) to take a lunchbreak away from the desk, outside even if it is just to eat an ice pop or moan about the winter weather. That small amount of sun, small amount away from the work is very important

They don't make 2 pieces of kit, one for the 'civilised' world and one for the rest - if it is the same model, same kit - parts from anywhere

I guess in a working life there are a lot of people we wouldn't socialise with, agree with their views but if the job demands we work with them then professionalism kicks in. Very possible to dislike someones views and work with them.

Just off the top of my head - figures might need adjusting to suit you, your expenses, overheads (also includes location) £20 an hour as wages (starting figure, adjust up or down) - we all have the minimum we want to take home before tax - each worker. +50% (£10 an hour) overheads 'office work' - making quotes, all the paper work, tea bags, overheads. + 75p / mile travel to and from site (should cover the cost of the van in that too?) + £1 / hour for each chainsaw / trimmer / blower - cover repairs and replacements, fuels + £0.50 / hour PPE etc, teabags for the van + local tip fees Would put a day rate close to £300 I'll put that up there, we can argue what else to include perhaps, and if my off the top of my head figures are too far off the mark

Well done, you have been trained to react when something goes wrong. I think we all have. Subtle different between reacting and being proactive, flagging issues that might be a problem if they evolve further. Your comments, which I am guessing are a direct link brain to fingers, are not suggesting you give credit to being proactive in flagging issues. Preferring to make a joke.

Look back at your recent posts before you edit them and I think that will show your attitude. When I say Health, safety and safeguarding are important issues, you send back a quip. When I say that calling out any unsafe behaviours is important, I am told to climb down from my moral soap box. That is showing your attitude to very clearly. I am thankful I don't ever have to work with you professionally if that is how your mind works with reporting any safety issue.

So is that your attitude? It isn't important enough to be an issue? We shouldn't report and confront when we see it happening? 'Climb down'?

Sorry, but it is not a matter for joking here, I have been to fatalities on site, to the aftermath of them, lived through the consequences because people were being careful what they reported, didn't want to upset things, walking away was the easiest option at the time. If something is not right, it needs reporting, to prevent further occurrences. Whether this is someone being unsafe with machinery or whether this is the public enabling an abuser. It needs noting. It needs stopping. Trump has a chequered past and has had dubious friends, if no one reports widely what he has done he will keep doing the same, keep getting away with it, pardon himself. This is the same with any health, safety or safeguarding issue. The attitude that 'be careful what you post' because of your work is plain wrong. Not something to be dropped with a quip.

I missed this line last night If one was to work with kids (or any vulnerable group, in fact anyone) and sees abuse happening it is not a matter of 'being careful what you post'. It is not a matter of turning a blind eye and walking away 'because I work with this group I'll say nothing'. Regardless of your role with the groups you work with it is a matter of professional conduct to call it out, to report it, rather than brush it under the carpet and walk away. Look to the recent past, how many of our own, home grown celebrities have been put in jail many years after abusing children because at the time the rumours were brushed away, each victim thought they were the only one because no one was talking about it. Being 'a bit more careful' what we talked about. Out in the open and the flood gates open "they did this to me too". On topic of Arborists, many posts and videos out there of things going wrong, of negligence and incompetence. Many are named and shamed directly or indirectly from images, and rightly so. Don't post the video of an accident, ignore the rumours of dangerous behaviours and the perpetrator works another day. So no, I'll reject your claim that any of us should be careful what we post due to the works we do. I'll go the other way, because of the works we do it is our own professional conduct at stake if we do not take appropriate action.

I knew a long term unemployed (unemployable...) man who had done all the courses and just spoke it as they told him to - stood out a mile using all the 'correct' phrases and not as normal people speak - wasn't just confined to writing.

No, generally the other members on here haven't been talking bollocks. No need to correct them.

The words you use have to match the job you are applying for. Start postulating theories in a covering letter it will get binned straight away, "I'm a cutter based in Scotland" - more to the point and whoever reads it will see you more as a real person.

Well, take a look at that then, more stable, but how is to argue against numbers - Wikipedia, easily digestible but sized chunks. In the table the green arrows show the country is more stable, the red arrows less stable and to compare 2023 (last numbers available) to 2019, it is hard not to note there are more countries more stable than in 2019 (more green arrows in the 'since 2019' column).... Quieter more stable now than in 2019. List of countries by Fragile States Index - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG EDI... and also to note that in the last few years, Tory government, the right of politics, the UK has grown more instable. Might be something to do with their obsession with changing Prime Ministers. Or Liz Truss.

Is there a bigger 'bang' than Trump though? 15 or 20 school children will be a headline for a week. Have a shot at Trump, fame for years to come

Yes, father owned several guns (20+ in the reports), but the boy was obviously a criminal since he stole one of them. If only there was a quick and easy link to be made from the scene of the crime (legally owned gun being stolen crime) and the criminal who stole it..... it would blow my mind if there was.

Making the news feeds this morning in Vance, who sounds like such a well adjusted, rounded, tolerant individual that you might want jetting all over the world, to all countries and cultures with respect and understanding. I wonder with Trump at the helm and him as his assistant, the world is suddenly going to get a lot more exciting